Iznik Pottery

Iznik is a town in western Turkey (known to the Greeks as Nicea) where gorgeous pottery was made from around 1475 until the early 1600s. This, from the Louvre, is an early dish dating to around 1480. Iznik ware did not develop slowly over decades, but sprang suddenly forth at the height of its glory.

The invention of Iznik ware is an interesting story. The Ottoman Sultans had a thing for Chinese porcelain; the collection in the Topkapi Palace holds more than 10,000 pieces. Trying to make something comparable, the potters of Iznik hit on a recipe for what we call "fritware." "Frit" is ground glass, and fritware is pottery that includes ground glass as a key ingredient. Iznik fritware consisted mostly of quartz sand, bound together with about 20% frit (made from high quality glass rich in lime and lead) and 10% clay. Iznik potters did not have access to the sort of clay, formed from decayed feldspar, that gives porcelain its special luster, and their vessels ended up with a body resembling pinkish stoneware. The hid the pink beneath a white slip -- slip is thin, watery clay that can be applied like a thick coat of paint -- and painted the slip with elaborate designs in cobalt blue. Then they covered everything with a clear lead glaze that makes the vessels shine. Above, a bottle of 1535-1545.

The first Iznik designs were borrowed, but not exactly copied, from Ming porcelain. Above are a 15th-century Ming plate with a grape pattern, and an Iznik plate of 1555-1570. You can see that the Iznik potters used Chinese designs for inspiration but did not exactly copy them. They were also influenced by medieval Syrian pottery, but again they did not copy it. Their style is distinctive. I think it is as beautiful as any pottery in the world.

A dish of va. 1540, in the Met.

The first Iznik ware was blue and white. In the sixteenth century the potters began adding other tones, as in this dish of 1540-1550.

A dish of ca. 1580.

To most westerners the most familiar products of the Iznik potteries are the tiles. Iznik potters were never able to get their dishes on the sultan's table, where Chinese porcelain held sway; there is no Iznik table ware in the Topkapi collection. Iznik dishes remained a sort of middle class fashion. But the sultans bought these tiles by the hundreds of thousands for their construction projects, and that patronage helped keep the potteries profitable for a century.

Pitcher, ca. 1570.

After 1600 Iznik ware declined; the tile industry dried up as the sultans moved on to other fashions, and tastes changed. Now, though, a new generation of Turkish potters make modern Iznik ware, and some of their products are nearly as lovely as the original. Above, a plate of ca. 1600.